USA > Oregon > The Oregon trail : sketches of prairie and Rocky Mountain life > Part 10
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We did not long enjoy our new quarters undisturbed. 25 The door was silently pushed open, and two eyeballs and a visage as black as night looked in upon us; then a red arm and shoulder intruded themselves, and a tall Indian, gliding in, shook us by the hand, grunted his salutation, and sat down on the floor. Others followed, with faces of the 30 natural hue; and letting fall their heavy robes from their shoulders, they took their seats, quite at ease, in a semi- circle before us. The pipe was now to be lighted and passed round from one to another; and this was the only en- tertainment that at present they expected from us. These 35 visitors were fathers, brothers, or other relatives of the squaws in the fort, where they were permitted to remain, loitering about in perfect idleness. All those who smoked with us were men of standing and repute. Two or three others dropped in also; young fellows who neither by their 40 years nor their exploits were entitled to rank with the old
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men and warriors, and who, abashed in the presence of their superiors, stood aloof, never withdrawing their eyes from us. Their cheeks were adorned with vermilion, their ears with pendants of shell, and their necks with beads. Never 5 yet having signalized themselves as hunters, or performed the honorable exploit of killing a man, they were held in slight esteem, and were diffident and bashful in proportion. Certain formidable inconveniences attended this influx of visitors. They were bent on inspecting everything in the Io room; our equipments and our dress alike underwent their scrutiny; for though the contrary has been carelessly as- serted, few beings have more curiosity than Indians in regard to subjects within their ordinary range of thought. As to other matters, indeed, they seemed utterly indifferent. 15 They will not trouble themselves to inquire into what they cannot comprehend, but are quite contented to place their hands over their mouths in token of wonder, and exclaim that it is "great medicine." With this comprehensive solution, an Indian never is at a loss. He never launches 20 forth into speculation and conjecture; his reason moves in its beaten track. His soul is dormant; and no exer- tions of the missionaries, Jesuit or Puritan, of the Old World or of the New, have as yet availed to rouse it.
As we were looking, at sunset, from the wall, upon the 25 wild and desolate plains that surround the fort, we observed a'cluster of strange objects like scaffolds rising in the dis- tance against the red western sky. They bore aloft some singular-looking burdens; and at their foot glimmered something white like bones. This was the place of sepulture 30 of some Dahcotah chiefs, whose remains their people are fond of placing in the vicinity of the fort, in the hope that they may thus be protected from violation at the hands of their enemies. Yet it has happened more than once and quite recently, that war parties of the Crow Indians, rang- 35 ing through the country, have thrown the bodies from the scaffolds, and broken them to pieces amid the yells of the Dahcotahs, who remained pent up in the fort, too few to defend the honored relies from insult. The white objects upon the ground were buffalo skulls, arranged in the mystic 40 circle commonly seen at Indian places of sepulture upon the prairie.
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We soon discovered, in the twilight, a band of fifty or sixty horses approaching the fort. These were the animals belonging to the establishment; who having been sent out to feed, under the care of armed guards, in the meadows below, were now being driven into the corral for the night. 5 A little gate opened into this inclosure; by the side of it stood one of the guards, an old Canadian, with gray bushy eyebrows, and a dragoon pistol stuck into his belt; while his comrade, mounted on horseback, his rifle laid across the saddle in front of him, and his long hair blowing before IG his swarthy face, rode at the rear of the disorderly troop, urging them up the ascent. In a moment the narrow corral was thronged with the half-wild horses, kicking, biting, and crowding restlessly together.
The discordant jingling of a bell, rung by a Canadian in 15 the area, summoned us to supper. This sumptuous repast was served on a rough table in one of the lower apartments of the fort, and consisted of cakes of bread and dried buffalo meat - an excellent thing for strengthening the teeth. At this meal were seated the bourgeois and superior dignitaries 20 of the establishment, among whom Henry Chatillon was worthily included. No sooner was it finished, than the table was spread a second time (the luxury of bread being now, however, omitted), for the benefit of certain hunters and trappers of an inferior standing; while the ordinary Cana->< dian engagés were regaled on dried meat in one of their lodging rooms. By way of illustrating the domestic econ- omy of Fort Laramie, it may not be amiss to introduce in this place a story current among the men when we were there.
There was an old man named Pierre, whose duty it was to bring the meat from the storeroom for the men. Old Pierre, in the kindness of his heart, used to select the fattest and the best pieces for his companions. This did not long escape the keen-eyed bourgeois, who was greatly disturbed 35 at such improvidence, and cast about for some means to stop it. At last he hit on a plan that exactly suited him. At the side of the meat-room, and separated from it by a clay partition, was another apartment, used for the storage of furs. It had no other communication with the fort, 40 except through a square hole in the partition; and of course
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it was perfectly dark. One evening the bourgeois, watching for a moment when no one observed him, dodged into the Incat-room, clambered through the hole, and ensconced him- self among the furs and buffalo robes. Soon after, old Pierre 5 came in with his lantern; and, muttering to himself, began to pull over the bales of meat, and select the best pieces. as usual. But suddenly a hollow and sepulchral voice pro- ceeded from the inner apartment: "Pierrel Pierre! Let that fat meat alonel Take nothing but lean !" Pierre Io dropped his lantern, and bolted out into the fort, screaming, in an agony of terror, that the devil was in the storeroom; but tripping on the threshold, he pitched over upon the gravel, and lay senseless, stunned by the fall. The Cana- dians ran out to the rescue. Some lifted the unlucky 15 Pierre; and others, making an extempore crucifixo out of two sticks, were proceeding to attack the devil in his strong- hold, when the bourgeois, with a crestfallen countenance, appeared at the door. To add to the bourgeois' mortifica- tion, he was obliged to explain the whole stratagem to Pierre, 20 in order to bring the latter to his senses.
We were sitting, on the following morning, in the pas- sage-way between the gates, conversing with the traders Vaskiss and May. These two men, together with our sleek friend, the clerk Montalon, were, I believe, the only persons 25 then in the fort who could read and write. May was telling a curious story about the traveler Catlin, ° when an ugly, diminutive Indian, wretchedly mounted, came up at a gallop, and rode past us into the fort. On being questioned, he said that Smoke's village was close at hand. Accord- 3º ingly only a few minutes elapsed before the hills beyond the river were covered with a disorderly swarm of savages, on horseback and on foot. May finished his story; and by that time the whole array had descended to Laramie creek, and commenced crossing it in a mass. I walked down to the 35 bank. The stream is wide, and was then between three and four feet deep, with a very swift current. For several rods the water was alive with dogs, horses, and Indians. The long poles used in erecting the lodges are carried by the horses, being fastened by the heavier end, two or three 40 on each side, to a rude sort of pack saddle, while [the other end drags on the ground. About a foot behind the horse,
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a kind of large basket or pannier is suspended between the poles, and firmly lashed in its place. On the back of the horse are piled various articles of luggage; the basket also is well filled with domestic utensils, or, quite as often, with a litter of puppies, a brood of small children, or a super- 5 annuated old man. Numbers of these curious vehicles, called, in the bastard language of the country travaux, were now splashing together through the stream. Among them swam countless dogs, often burdened with miniature travaux; and dashing forward on horseback through the Ia throng came the superbly formed warriors, the slender figure of some lynx-eyed boy clinging fast behind them. The women sat perched on the pack saddles, adding not a little to the load of the already overburdened horses. The confusion was prodigious. The dogs yelled and howled 15 in chorus; the puppies in the travaux set up a dismal whine as the water invaded their comfortable retreat; the little black-eyed children, from one year of age upward, clung fast with both hands to the edge of their basket, and looked over in alarm at the water rushing so near them, sputtering 20 and making wry mouths as it splashed against their faces. Some of the dogs, encumbered by their load, were carried down by the current, yelping piteously ; and the old squaws would rush into the water, seize their favorites by the neck, and drag them out. As each horse gained the bank, he 25 scrambled up as he could. Stray horses and colts came among the rest, often breaking away at full speed through the crowd, followed by the old hags, screaming after their fashion on all occasions of excitement. Buxom young squaws, blooming in all the charms of vermilion, stood here 30 and there on the bank, holding aloft their master's lance, as a signal to collect the scattered portions of his household. In a few moments the crowd melted away; each family, with its horses and equipage, filing off to the plain at the rear of the fort; and here, in the space of half an hour, arose 35 sixty or seventy of their tapering lodges. Their horses were feeding by hundreds over the surrounding prairie, and their dogs were roaming everywhere. The fort was full of men, and the children were whooping and yelling incessantly under the walls.
These newcomers were scarcely arrived, when Bordeaux 40
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was running across the fort, shouting to his squaw to bring him his spy-glass. The obedient Marie, the very model of a squaw, produced the instrument, and Bordeaux hurried with it up to the wall. Pointing it to the eastward, he ex- 5 claimed, with an oath, that the families were coming. But a few moments elapsed before the heavy caravan of the emigrant wagons could be seen, steadily advancing from the hills. They gained the river, and without turning or pausing plunged in; they passed through, and slowly as- ro cending the opposing bank, kept directly on their way past the fort and the Indian village, until, gaining a spot a quarter of a mile distant, they wheeled into a circle. For some time our tranquillity was undisturbed. The emigrants were preparing their encampment; but no sooner was this ac- 15 complished than Fort Laramie was fairly taken by storin. A crowd of broad-brimmed hats, thin visages, and staring eyes appeared suddenly at the gate. Tall awkward men, in brown homespun; women with cadaverous faces and long lank figures, came thronging in together, and, as if inspired 20 by the very demon of curiosity, ransacked every nook and corner of the fort. Dismayed at this invasion, we withdrew in all speed to our chamber, vainly hoping that it might prove an inviolable sanctuary. The emigrants prosecuted their investigations with untiring vigor. They penetrated 25 the rooms or rather dens, inhabited by the astonished squaws. They explored the apartments of the men, and even that of Marie and the bourgeois. At last a numerous deputation appeared at our door, but were immediately expelled. Being totally devoid of any sense of delicacy 30 or propriety, they seemed resolved to search every mystery to the bottom.
Having at length satisfied their curiosity, they next proceeded to business. The men occupied themselves in procuring supplies for their onward journey; either buying 35 them with money or giving in exchange superfluous articles of their own.
The emigrants felt a violent prejudice against the French Indians, as they called the trappers and traders. They thought, and with some justice, that these men bore them 40 no good will. Many of them were firmly persuaded that the French were instigating the Indians to attack and cut
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them off. On visiting the encampment we were at once struck with the extraordinary perplexity and indecision that prevailed among the emigrants. They seemed like men totally out of their elements; bewildered and amazed, like a troop of school-boys lost in the woods. It was im- 5 possible to be long among them without being conscious of the high and bold spirit with which most of them were animated. But the forest is the home of the backwoodsman. On the remote prairie he is totally at a loss. He differs as much from the genuine "mountain-man," the wild prairie Ic hunter, as a Canadian voyageur, paddling his canoe on the rapids of the Ottawa, differs from an American sailor among the storms of Cape Horn. Still my companion and I were somewhat at a loss to account for this perturbed state of mind. It could not be cowardice; these men were of the 15 same stock with the volunteers of Monterey and Buena
Vista. º Yet, for the most part, they were the rudest and most ignorant of the frontier population; they knew absolutely nothing of the country and its inhabitants; they had already experienced much misfortune, and apprehended 20 more; they had seen nothing of mankind, and had never put their own resources to the test.
A full proportion of suspicion fell upon us. Being strangers we were looked upon as enemies. Having oc- casion for a supply of lead and a few other necessary articles, 25 we used to go over to the emigrant camps to obtain them. After some hesitation, some dubious glances, and fumbling of the hands in the pockets, the terms would be agreed upon, the price tendered, and the emigrant would go off to bring the article in question. After waiting until our patience 30 gave out, we would go in search of him, and find him seated on the tongue of his wagon.
"Well, stranger," he would observe, as he saw us ap- proach, "I reckon I won't trade !"
Some friend of his had followed him from the scene of 35 the bargain, and suggested in his ear, that clearly we meant to cheat him, and he had better have nothing to do with us.
This timorous mood of the emigrants was doubly un- fortunate, as it exposed them to real danger. Assume, in the presence of Indians, a bold bearing, self-confident 40 yet vigilant, and you will find them tolerably safe neigh-
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bors. But your safety depends on the respect and fear you are able to inspire. If you betray timidity or indecision, you convert them from that moment into insidious and dangerous enemies. The Dahcotahs saw clearly enough 5 the perturbation of the emigrants, and instantly availed themselves of it. They became extremely insolent and exacting in their demands. It has become an established custom with them to go to the camp of every party, as it arrives in succession at the fort, and demand a feast. Io Sinoke's village had come with this express design, having made several days' journey with no other object than that of enjoying a cup of coffee and two or three biscuits. So the "feast" was demanded, and the cmigrants dared not refuse it.
15 One evening, about sunset, the village was deserted. We met old men, warriors, squaws, and children in gay attire, trooping off to the encampment, with faces of all- ticipation; and, arriving here, they seated themselves in a semicircle. Smoke occupied the center, with his warriors 20 on either hand; the young men and boys next succeeded, and the squaws and children formed the horns of the cres- cent. The biscuit and coffee were most promptly dis- patched, the emigrants staring open-mouthed at their
savage guests. With each new emigrant party that ar- 25 rived at Fort Laramie this scene was renewed; and every day the Indians grew more rapacious and presumptuous. One evening they broke to pieces, out of mere wantonness, the cups from which they had been feasted; and this so exasperated the emigrants that many of them seized their 3º rifles and could scarcely be restrained from firing on the insolent mnob of Indians. Before we left the country this dangerous spirit on the part of the Dahcotahs had mounted to a yet higher pitch. They began openly to threaten the emigrants with destruction, and actually fired upon one or 35 two parties of whites. A military force and military law are urgently called for in that perilous region; and unless troops are speedily stationed at Fort Laramie, or elsewhere in the neighborhood, both the emigrants and other travelers will be exposed to most imminent risks.
40 The Ogallallahs, the Brulés and other western bands of the Dahcotahs, are thorough savages, unchanged by any
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contact with civilization. Not one of them can speak a European tongue, or has ever visited an American settle- ment. Until within a year or two, when the emigrants began to pass through their country on the way to Oregon, they had seen no whites except the handful employed about 5 the fur company's posts. They esteemed them a wise people, inferior only to themselves, living in leather lodges, like their own, and subsisting on buffalo. But when the swarm of Meneaska, with their oxen and wagons, began to invade them, their astonishment was unbounded. They Ic could scarcely believe that the earth contained such a multitude of white men. Their wonder is now giving way to indignation : and the result, unless vigilantly guarded against, may be lamentable in the extreme.
But to glance at the interior of a lodge. Shaw and I 15 used often to visit them. Indeed we spent most of our, evenings in the Indian village; Shaw's assumption of the medical character giving us a fair pretext. As a sample of the rest I will describe one of these visits. The sun had just set, and the horses were driven into the corral. The 20 Prairie Cock, a noted beau, came in at the gate with a bevy of young girls, with whom he began a dance in the area, leading them round and round in a circle, while he jerked up from his chest a succession of monotonous sounds, to which they kept time in a rueful chant. Outside the 25 gate boys and young men were idly frolicking; and close by, looking grimly upon them, stood a warrior in his robe, with his face painted jet-black, in token that he had lately taken a Pawnee scalp. Passing these, the tall dark lodges rose between us and the red western sky. We repaired at 30 once to the lodge of Old Smoke himself. It was by no means better than the others; indeed, it was rather shabby; for in this democratic community the chief never assumes superior state. Smoke sat cross-legged on a buffalo robe, and his grunt of salutation as we entered was unusually 35 cordial, out of respect no doubt to Shaw's medical character. Seated around the lodge were several squaws, and an abun- dance of children. The complaint of Shaw's patients was, for the most part, a severe inflammation of the eyes, oc- casioned by exposure to the sun, a species of disorder which 40 he treated with some success. He had brought with him a
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homeopathic medicine chest, and was, I presume, the first who introduced that harmless system of treatment among the Ogallallahs. No sooner had a robe been spread at the head of the lodge for our accommodation, and we 5 had seated ourselves upon it, than a patient made her ap- pearance: the chief's daughter herself, who, to do her justice, was the best-looking girl in the village. Being on excellent terms with the physician, she placed herself readily under his hands, and submitted with a good grace Io to his applications, laughing in his face during the whole process, for a squaw hardly knows how to smile. This case dispatched, another of a different kind succeeded. A hideous, emaciated old woman sat in the darkest corner of the lodge rocking to and fro with pain and hiding her eyes 15 from the light by pressing the palms of both hands against her face. At Smoke's command, she came forward, very unwillingly, and exhibited a pair of eyes that had nearly disappeared from excess of inflammation. No sooner had the doctor fastened his gripe upon her than she set up a dis- 20 mal moaning, and writhed so in his grasp that he lost all patience, but being resolved to carry his point, he succeeded at last in applying his favorite remedies.
" It is strange," he said, when the operation was finished, " that I forgot to bring any Spanish fliesº with me; we must 25 have something here to answer for a counter-irritant !"
So, in the absence of better, he seized upon a red-hot brand from the fire, and clapped it against the temple of the old squaw, who set up an unearthly howl, at which the rest of the family broke out into a laugh.
30 During these medical operations Smoke's eldest squaw entered the lodge, with a sort of stone mallet in her hand. I had observed some time before a litter of well-grown black puppies, comfortably nestled among some buffalo robes at one side, but this newcomer speedily disturbed 35 their enjoyment; for seizing one of them by the hind paw, she dragged him out, and carrying him to the entrance of the lodge, hammered him on the head till she killed him. Being quite conscious to what this preparation tended, I looked through a hole in the back of the lodge to see the
40 next steps of the process. The squaw, holding the puppy by the legs, was swinging him to and fro through the blaze
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of a fire, until the hair was singed off. This done, she un- sheathed her knife and cut him into small pieces, which she dropped into a kettle to boil. In a few moments a large wooden dish was set before us, filled with this delicate preparation. We felt conscious of the honor. A dog-feast 5 is the greatest compliment a Dahcotah can offer to his guest; and knowing that to refuse eating would be an affront, we attacked the little dog and devoured him before the eyes of his unconscious parent. Smoke in the meantime was preparing his great pipe. It was lighted when we had Ic finished our repast, and we passed it from one to another till the bowl was empty. This done, we took our Jeave without further ceremony, knocked at the gate of the fort, and after making ourselves known were admitted.
One morning, about a week after reaching Fort Lara- 15 mie, we were holding our customary Indian levee, when a bustle in the area below announced a new arrival; and look- ing down from our balcony, I saw a familiar red beard and mustache in the gateway. They belonged to the captain, who with his party had just crossed the stream. We met 20 him on the stairs as he came up, and congratulated him on the safe arrival of himself and his devoted companions. But he remembered our treachery, and was grave and dig- nified accordingly; a tendency which increased as he ob- served on our part a disposition to laugh at him. After 25 - remaining an hour or two at the fort he rode away with his friends, and we have heard nothing of him since. As for R., he kept carefully aloof. It was but too evident that we had the unhappiness to have forfeited the kind regards of our London fellow-traveler. .
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CHAPTER X
THE WAR PARTIES
THE summer of 1846 was a season of much warlike excite- ment among all the western bands of the Dahcotahs. In 1845 they encountered great reverses. Many war parties had been sent out; some of them had been totally cut off, 5 and others had returned broken and disheartened, so that the whole nation was in mourning. Among the rest, ten warriors had gone to the Snake country, led by the son of a prominent Ogallallah chief, called The Whirlwind. In passing over Laramie plains they encountered a superior Io number of their enemies, were surrounded, and killed to a man. Having performed this exploit the Snakes became alarmed, dreading the resentment of the Dahcotahs, and they hastened therefore to signify their wish for peace by sending the scalp of the slain partisan, together with a 15 small parcel of tobacco attached, to his tribesmen and re- lations. They had employed old Vaskiss, the trader, as their messenger, and the scalp was the same that hung in our room at the fort. But The Whirlwind proved inex- orable. Though his character hardly corresponds with his 20 name, he is nevertheless an Indian, and hates the Snakes with his whole soul. Long before the scalp arrived he had made his preparations for revenge. He sent messengers with presents and tobacco to all the Dahcotahs within three hundred miles, proposing a grand combination to chastise 25 the Snakes, and naming a place and time of rendezvous. The plan was readily adopted, and at this moment many villages, probably embracing in the whole five or six thou- sand souls, were slowly creeping over the prairies and tend- ing towards the common center at La Bonté's camp, on the 30 Platte. Here their warlike rites were to be celebrated with more than ordinary solemnity, and a thousand warriors, as it was said, were to set out for the enemy's country.
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